Organizational Skills | QuietSpacing

DMV – The Model of Efficiency?

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Going to the DMV ranks near the bottom of things people like to do. We wait until our license plates or our driver’s licenses are nearly expired before we drag ourselves down to the local office, expecting the experience to be both miserable and interminable. Those fears, coupled with our general fear of the unknown, make a trip to the DMV something just slightly more fun than getting a root canal.

Bureaucracy-phobic

Such was my state of mind a few weeks ago as I approached our DMV branch office with the title to my new (old) car in hand. The mission: to get the old Montana title converted to a new Nevada title. Simple enough.

Search is No Savior for Overloaded E-mail Inboxes

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Last week, the New York Times ran an article titled 5 Easy Ways to Stanch The E-mail Flood. As an author and speaker on time management who spends a lot of time taking about and dealing with e-mail for both myself and my clients, I am always interested in new tips and tricks for making e-mail more manageable and more productive. Moreover, I am generally loath to take issue with other people’s positions on how best to do this. However, this particular article left me with a sense of surrender and failure that has nagged at me for days. So, on behalf of myself and all my clients, this is my response.

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Filing, Filing, Who's Got the Filing?

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Everyone agrees that filing in an organized way is better than not filing at all. Okay, there are a few outliers who don’t, but they’re just being stubborn.

The real issue here isn’t whether to file, but how to file. My clients routinely fail to file well because they don’t believe they have the time or wherewithal to create a filing system that will actually work.

Just Look to Your Kitchen for Guidance

Most people cry, “But I’d don’t know where to start!” whenever the issue of creating a filing system is brought up. Nonesense. Just look to the silverware drawer in virtually everyone’s kitchen. It’s organized, so it can’t be that hard. Note, the silverware drawer stands in stark contract to the “junk” drawer which is generally a disaster.

What’s my point? Ask yourself which system works better for you. Read on if you answered the silverware drawer.

QuickTip: Texting Improves Communication … If You Try

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Face it. Texting is here to stay. Love it or hate it, it’s just another chapter in the long history of faster, more mobile communication technologies that started with messengers running across the Greek mountains between rulers. Whether we’re using the “old school” flip-phone style of texting or the update-to-date smartphone with its virtual keyboard, nearly everyone is texting, at least to a very small group of people. In fact, the only people I know who aren’t are my parents. That’s because my Mom can’t stay focused long enough on the “how” to make it happen!

It occurred to me while deplaning the other day and watching everyone check their messages – text and voice – that if done properly, texting can actually improve how well we communicate with each other. The reasons lie in the technology’s (perceived) limits of 140-160 characters and in the nature of short-burst opportunities occasioned by its mobility.

Manage Time Better. Enjoy Life More.